A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Passing Notes

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A Dictionary of Music and Musicians
edited by George Grove

Passing Notes by Hubert Parry

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From volume 2 of the work.

1977845A Dictionary of Music and Musicians — Passing NotesGeorge GroveHubert Parry

PASSING NOTES are inessential discordant notes which are interposed between the essential factors of the harmonic structure of music on melodic principles. Their simplest form is the succession of notes diatonically connected which fill up the intervals between the component notes of essential chords, and fall upon the unaccented portions of the bar: as in the following example from Pergolesi; in which the melody passing from note to note of the chord of F minor touches the discordant notes G, B, D, and E in passing.

${ \time 4/4 \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f << \new Staff { \key f \minor \partial 8 \relative f' { f8 | f g^"*" aes bes^"*" c d^"*" e^"*" f | f2( g,4) s } } \new Staff { \clef bass \key f \minor \relative f' { r8 << { r f c f aes, f' c f | g, f' des f bes,4 } \\ { aes,1 bes } >> } } >> }$

Equally simple are the passing notes which are arrived at by going from an essential note of harmony to its next neighbour in the degrees of the scale on either side and back again, as in the following example from Handel.

${ \time 12/8 \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f << \new Staff { \key a \major \partial 8 \relative c'' { c8 | fis gis^"*" fis eis8. dis16^"*" eis8 fis cis a fis4 s8 } } \new Staff { \clef bass \key a \major r8 <fis a>4. <gis b> <a cis'> s } >> }$

The remaining simple form is the insertion of notes melodically between notes of different chords, as (a). In modern music notes are used chromatically in the same ways, as (b).

${ \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \relative d'' { \cadenzaOn << { d16^"(a)"[ c^"*"] b4 \bar "||" <d f>16^"(b)"[ fis g gis] a[ ais b c] \bar "|" <cis a>4 } \\ { fis,,8 g4 | a16 s8. <d f>16 s8. <e a,>4 } >> } }$

It would appear from such simple principles that passing notes must always be continuous from point to point; but the early masters of the polyphonic school soon found out devices for diversifying this order. The most conspicuous of these was the process of interpolating a note between the passing note and the arrival at its destination, as in the following example from Josquin des Prés—

${ \time 4/2 \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f << \new Staff { \key f \major \relative f' { << { f2. e4^"*" c2 d | e1*2 \bar "||" } \\ { a,1 ~ a | g1*2 } >> } } \new Staff { \key f \major \clef bass d2 d f f c1*2 } >> }$

in which the passing note E which lies properly between F and D is momentarily interrupted in its progress by the C on the other side of D being taken first. This became in time a stereotyped formula, with curious results which are mentioned in the article Harmony [vol. i. p. 678]. Another common device was that of keeping the motion of sounds going by taking the notes on each side of a harmony note in succession as

${ \time 2/8 \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \relative c'' << { c16[ b^"*" d^"*" c] \bar "||" g[ a^"*" fis^"*" g] \bar "||" } \\ { <e c>4 q } >> }$

which is also a sufficiently common form in modern music.

A developed form which combines chromatic passing notes to a point with a leap beyond, before the point is taken, is the following from Weber's Oberon, which is curious and characteristic.

${ \time 3/8 \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f << \new Staff { \key g \major \relative b { b16 c^"*" cis^"*" e^"*" d r } } \new Staff { \clef bass \key g \major <d g,>8 r r } >> }$

A large proportion of passing notes fall upon the unaccented portions of the bar, but powerful effects are obtained by reversing this and heavily accenting them: two examples are given in the article Harmony [vol. i. p. 683] and a curious example where they are daringly mixed up in a variety of ways may be noted in the first few bars of No. 5 of Brahms's Clavier-Stücke, Op. 76. Some writers classify as passing notes those which are taken preparatorily a semitone below a harmony note in any position, as in the following example—

${ \time 3/8 \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \override Score.TupletNumber #'stencil = ##f \override Score.TupletBracket #'bracket-visibility = ##f << \new Staff { \key g \major \partial 4 \relative d'' { \repeat unfold 4 { \times 2/3 { d16[ bes g] } } } } \new Staff { \clef bass \key g \major \relative c' { \times 2/3 { s8 cis16_"*" } d[ a_"*"] | bes[ fis_"*" g8] } } >> }$

etc.

For further examples of their use in combination and in contrary motion etc., see Harmony.

[ C. H. H. P. ]